SHOCKER: Serena never makes it to Linz

from making her date in Linz, Austria this week, a small WTA Tour event she entered at the 11th hour (coincidentally announced on the day Caroline Wozniacki dethroned her as world No. 1, hehe).

Readers of this blog know we don’t defend the best player in the game (but not for the nefarious reasons some correspondents imply).

But this time, we think she had reasonably good intentions.

Hitting partner Sacha was sending Twitter messages from the airport yesterday, reportedly on his way to Europe.

But Serena reportedly felt some pain in her final training session on Saturday in Florida.

The reports say she had a scan, which said that the foot injury/surgery hadn’t fully healed yet.

Once again, it’s all a bit dubious.

Serena reportedly got the “all clear” from her medical people before she made her plans. Presumably there were scans or some such thing involved before they made that pronouncement.

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But suddenly, what was healed became unhealed. Nothing has been said about the Kremlin Cup in Moscow the following week, where Williams reportedly requested a visa and planned to play (wisely, they haven’t added her name to the acceptance list).

No doubt that pullout announcement will again be made after the draw comes out – just to keep everyone on tenterhooks.

We suspect the next in line for the now completely irrelevant year-end championships in Doha is making travel plans, too.

And the American Fed Cup team, which was living in dreamland that both Williams sisters would participate in the final against Italy next month, will be back to status quo with the players that got the team to the final in the first place: Melanie Oudin,Bethanie Mattek-Sands, Liezel Huber.

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Never a dull moment.

Meanwhile, the organizers in Linz reached out to Ana Ivanovic, who may have been home in nearby Switzerland, to fill in for Serena. Despite a weak field that peaked with No. 29 Daniela Hantuchova before Serena’s planned presence, Ivanovic still is not seeded. But the comely Serb does add a bit of pizazz (and presumably a few bucks to her bank account).

It’s actually surprising that this didn’t happen earlier. Ivanovic won’t be in Doha, and she’s playing pretty well right now. It’s an opportunity to add some ranking points for Ivanovic – until you remember how incredibly poorly she does in the smaller Tour events.

Meanwhile, Ana’s Facebook fans are rather thrilled by her Austrian appearance.

Here’s a sample of their reaction:

(Fed Cup photo from the Birmingham News. Ironically, the bikini shot of Serena was reportedly taken almost exactly two years ago, during the Kremlin Cup in Moscow. Williams had pulled out of that event because of a left ankle thing and, in doing so, surrendered the No. 1 ranking to Jelena Jankovic. A little bit of Serena history).View on Montreal Gazette

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